Various products such as personal care or cosmetic products (e.g., toothpaste and lotions) are sold to consumers in flexible plastic tubes. Squeezable tube-shaped containers have a tubular body with one end heat-sealed along a straight line seam. For instance, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,632,951; 3,197,532; 5,908,124; and 5,213,235, which disclose the use of blow molding techniques for forming tube-shaped containers. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,124 discloses the formation of an integral twist-off closure to eliminate the need for providing a separately manufactured closure. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,542 which discloses a method of making an extrusion blow molded container with an integral, removable closure and U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,136 which discloses a squeeze bottle having dual openings. The formation of tubular containers from a longitudinally stretched, extruded, thermoplastic cylinder is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,910 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,856. Side-seam tubes are also generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,959,066 and 4,310,369.
Generally, the squeeze tube is formed by cross-sealing the tubular body with a cross-sealing apparatus. There are various techniques for sealing including hot jaw sealing, wherein the tube is pressed between a pair of heated sealing jaws; sonic welding; induction sealing where a magnetic field is used to excite foil within the tube wall structure to melt the plastic before pressing together; hot air sealing, wherein heated air is used to melt the plastic before pressing; and laser sealing where a laser is used to heat the plastic before pressing. In most cases, the tube is not labeled or decorated in the seal area because damage to the label, ink, or surface coating can occur during sealing. The label or coating can discolor due to the heat, or the label coating or ink may lose adhesion to the tube and separate due to the heat. In addition the application of label material, coating or ink on the surface of the tube in the seal area may affect the seal integrity or contaminate the inside of the seal area and prevent sealing. For these reasons the tube label and decoration generally does not cover the entire surface area of the tube.
While Norden AndBro Inc. teach a medium density polyethylene tube with a full wrap label from Impres Label, which extends through the tube's sealed end, the label on this tube delaminates in the sealed area and is not esthetically pleasing when displayed on store shelves. As such, label manufacturers, such as FASSON Role North America (Painesville, Ohio), generally recommend that a label's edge be positioned on a tube at least ¼ inch from the start of the crimp to avoid subsequent label darting or flagging.